Federal judge to rule on civil rights at Alligator Alcatraz, where detainees report maggots, infections and blocked access to lawyers

A priest held a Catholic Mass outside the Everglades detention center, Alligator Alcatraz, on Saturday morning. Here is the recap of the event.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the location in the rugged and remote Everglades was meant as a deterrent against escape, much like the island prison in California that Republicans named it after. The detention center has an estimated annual cost of $450 million, according to a public database.

On a sweltering afternoon in the Everglades, faith and activism intersected — as the nonprofit Guatemalan Maya Center organized a Catholic mass outside Alligator Alcatraz, the remote immigration detention center.